Lost qualities

A psychology professor in Berkeley shared her opinion on spontaneous compassion, how it can be lost and regained. Years ago she met with an accident which resulted in some head injuries that broke various blood vessels causing excessive blood flow into her face. Her face became swollen and took on several ugly colour disfiguration for a few months. Whilst convalescing in a centre she observed how uncomfortable adults were when interacting with her. They tried to avoid looking straight at her face whilst not knowing where to shift their eyes. She reckoned people dared not look at her for fear of being perceived as staring. To save themselves and her from perceived embarrassment they avoided her altogether.

In the centre were 2 children, a 8 year old girl and a 10 year old low functioning austistic boy. One day the girl approached the professor and told her straight in the face that she looked like a monster. However she did not withdraw in fear but instead engaged the professor in a lively conversation. They became friends and went on to play some "Monster will catch you" game.

The other child in the centre was an autistic boy who knew only 3 words, the name of his brother, the name of his caregiver and the word 'chocolate'. The boy had an uncanny sense of which passer-by had chocolates in their pockets or bag and would approach them and mutter the word 'chocolate' haltingly. In this way he would get to eat what he loved. One day the child crept up beside the professor (who was feeling very down) and muttered the chocolate word. The professor explained that she did not have any chocolate with her. The boy looked at her face, slowly pulled out a chocolate bar from his pocket and gave it to her.

2 things strike me in this episode:
-The autistic boy despite being very very low in the scale of most types of intelligencies, in my opinion scored very high in 'interpersonal intelligence' because of his ability to empathize. He seemed to possess a heightened sensitivity to the moods of others and an ability to heal through non verbal mode, ie. through an expression of the soul.

-The girl too seemed to fare better than the adults through her unconditional acceptance. Hers is an example of spontaneity and authenticity.

Do we lose such abilities as we grow up? Are they pushed to the background whilst we focus on other more 'useful' intellectual skills?

Can we regain or reconstruct these impaired abilities? Can we reactivate these positive qualities? I believe we can.